


Haemophilia

by shipallthebooty



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Fluff and Crack, M/M, serious cocaine, seriously just crack cocaine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-02-04 18:34:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18610174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shipallthebooty/pseuds/shipallthebooty
Summary: The boys got haemophelia!! They're important





	Haemophilia

**Author's Note:**

> im so sorry

Roy doesn’t know why he’s here. He looks down at all the paperwork on his desk and sighs. The most entertaining event he’s experienced today was when the Lieutenant left and a bird flew into his window and fell down. He pointed and laughed at it until she got back and told him to get back to work. 

Happiness is so fleeting. Like that bird.

He stares and tries, really, really hard to focus. His eyes narrow as he reads through a report from Risembool about two skilled alchemists. The rusty old gears start grinding. Then they stop again and he gets out of his chair. “I’m going to get coffee”

“Do I need to come with you”

“No, why?” 

“You kept spilling the coffee on yourself.”

“It happens”

“You did it four times, sir. In a row. Havoc had to pour it for you.”

“Well I can do it by myself this time”

“Fine. Be careful” 

There’s not much thinking going on when he tries to pour his coffee, either. He stares at the black and tries to focus really hard and then it happens. An idea. Brilliant.

*CLASH*

He stares at the shattered glass and harsh brown liquid coating the floor. He’s not very smart, or skilled, or talented. Or anything. But what if he could get someone to do those things for him?

~~wah wah wah wo wo wo wah!~~

A hard knock on a big wooden door brings out a small old woman with a crease to her brow and blood literally everywhere.

“May I come in”

“What do you want”

“I’m looking for three highly skilled-

“Two”

“Two highly skilled alchemists” Roy quickly nudges the woman next to him “Oh my gosh I almost forgot!”

She takes over and somehow uses words to conduct them inside the building, where a tall suit in armour sits next to a small boy perched in a wheelchair, oddly missing two limbs. Roy is taken aback, and stares at him harshly. Even he knows what happened. He saw the basement. There’s not a doubt in his mind what’s going on.

“You” He points to the armour. “You tried to transmute this little boy, didn’t you?! Tell me!”

“No! This is my big brother, he- we- we tried to bring our mother back….we’re so sorry, it’s not his fault, he didn’t know, he doesn’t know anything, I promise, please don’t hurt him.”

The Colonel doesn’t know what to say. He takes two steps forward and brings himself to his knee, eye-to-eye with the little blonde boy.

“Is this true?”

“No, I was a part of it. I helped. I did something.” He looks around for a second before leaning in close, as if he wanted to say something. “Yes, what is it?”

Roy is so confused right now. He just decides to keep asking questions, and goad them into joining him as his left hand. Or both of his hands. He can’t do anything with either hand, really.

“My arm and leg are bleeding a lot” 

“Well they’re not really an arm and a leg anymore are th-OW”

The old woman hits him with a newspaper, giving him a large papercut across his cheek. “Hey, what the hell was that for? I have haemophilia, this is going to bleed forever…”

“Hey, I have haemophilia too!” The little boy looks at him with wide eyes “That’s so weird, but can you come here for a sec?” His eyes are worried, frenzied. He leans in again.

“Do you know when my arm and leg will grow back? I read in a book that when our limbs are pulled off they grow back, but Granny keeps telling me they don’t grow back”.

Huh. Roy purses his lips. “They do not grow back.” Isn’t he supposed to be smart? Disappointment grows in the young one’s eyes, and he starts to cry before the man roughly grabs his shirt and yanks him forward, “But I’ll tell you what. You can make up for what you did. You can sit there and cry or you can get up and do something about it.”

“That’s quite enough, Colonel. I think it’s time for you to leave.”

The man gazes at the two brothers, “Take the state alchemist exam and I’ll take you under my wing”.

He takes the lieutenant - or more like, the lieutenant takes him - and leaves. He saw them. He knows. While he couldn’t see through the younger brother’s empty gaze, there was something fierce, that burrowed into his own eyes. Something...  
“Sir, have you blinked?”

“What?” In surprise, the man brings his eyelids together but yelps when they don’t shut properly over his dry eyes “Ow”. 

“We’ll be back soon, sir. I’m sorry it didn’t work out.” She looks at him with empathy, but he feels no sorriness. 

“It’s alright, lieutenant. They’ll be back.”

“Sir”

“There was fire in his eyes”.

~~~Wah wahhh wo wo whaa!~~

Roy stares at the papers in his hands, throwing Hawkeye a weird look, “I didn’t think both of them would pass. Edward seems a little out of his comfort zone here....but Alphonse…” He trails off. “This will have to do.”. They’re just children, but he believes in them. They’re just children, but he’s seen them fight for their life once already. They can do this. 

They’re not helpless. Vulnerable. Trying to run away. Roy can’t help but think of those in the war. He joined the military because he was just like any other dumbass who couldn’t get the grades to go somewhere like State University. He was highly commended after the war, after all he’d done with his hands. 

He brings his palm towards himself, and recalls the fire. It was so hard to light the matches, he had to keep asking another soldier to do it for him. But he follow orders. He killed. One by one, they went down, bashed and burned by his mighty stick. The fire on top helped him see in the dark. He wasn’t like those real alchemists who used alchemy to kill, no, he went for the most honourable way. Face to face, weapon to weapon, stick to fist.

He beat thousands of men, women and children to death with his flaming stick alone. 

BLAM

“Hi Roy!”

“It’s Colonel. Stop there.”

“Did you hear about my new name?” He sounds distressed. “I think they’re trying to make fun of me...calling me Fullmetal. It’s because of my limbs!”

“Yes, I’d think so”

“Well jokes on them, my automail is made out of steel, not metal!” 

Roy just purses his lips and smiles. He won’t tell. He couldn’t. But, he catches Hawkeye’s grimace in the far corner of his eye.

“Listen, I have a mission for you and your brother. Please take note of your brother. He must come with you-”

“Well duh, we stick together. He’s my brother.”

“Don’t interrupt. Take this file. I trust you can read the contents-”

“Yeah....sorry”. Roy lets out of a breath through his nose. Twelve year olds are so annoying.

“You’re dismissed. Make sure Alphonse has a read of it too. Dismissed”

The kid stomps away and slams the door shut. “Did you give him the right file?”

“Well yes, of course…” Roy trails off, glancing at his desk to make sure. He sighs in relief. “

“Kid seems a bit stupid, huh?” 

The lieutenant just puts her face in her hands, likely mourning for her own future.

~~~

There are times, too many times, when Edward gets himself into trouble, despite the best efforts of his little brother.

“I don’t know what happened, Colonel. I thought it would work. The guy was coming after me so I took off my steel and tried to hit him with it! It just ended up being too heavy! I keep forgetting it’s my other arm…”

The Colonel nods in understanding, “It makes sense. Metal is heavy and can do a lot of damage. I think I would have done the same.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, of course”

“It’s the eleventh time I’ve done it though. I’m so dumb. I keep doing it over and over.”

Roy’s lips twitch upwards, “That’s okay. I spilt coffee on myself twice this morning-”

“Thrice” the lieutenant groans

“So I get it.” 

The boy smiles hopefully, obviously not having had such a response before.

~~~~wooooo waa h whha wa wa wa~~~

Four years later, God is punched in the face and meets his face. 

Not with the punch, of course, but by an elaborate counter-plan set by the Elric brothers genius father. 

The Elrics get their bodies back, by the quick thinking of the younger brother, and they both stay at the military dorms while they heal. 

The older Elric lays in bed, listening to the radio shows. He contemplates all that happened, and wonders, truly, how the fuck is he not dead yet?. Alphonse says he is living proof of Guardian Angels. He thinks he means it in a nice way.

“Brother, Mr. Mustang is here to see you”

“Really?”

He gives Alphonse a weird look before getting out of bed, “Don’t bother” the man walks in from behind him. Edward didn’t notice him there before. Huh. 

“I didn’t notice you there”

“It’s okay, I was behind your brother, it’s easy to become distracted.” The thin, 5 foot tall elric rolls his eyes before wobbling away.

The Colonel sits on the bed, “How are you feeling.” He knows the older Elric cries easily, so when he starts to tear up he isn’t surprised, “I don’t know. I don’t know how I’m still alive. What happened is so big -”

“Really big”

“-it was so confusing. It’s so hard. I’m so dumb and everyone thinks so and they wonder why I’m here and I don’t know what to do about it. And it was hard. There were so many people who wanted to hurt me and I kept doing stupid stuff and I never know what’s going on. Some guy named father died and apparently he’s bad but I don’t know how. Did he make too many fake people? I don’t know! It was so scary and I’m tired and I just want it to end. My haemophilia keeps making me bleed everywhere. There’s not enough factor 8 for it.”

Roy didn’t quite catch all the mumblings. But he realises, startlingly, breathtakingly, he understands. 

“I know. It’s hard. I have to have the factor 8 too. It’s really weird and I don’t get it either but I think Father wanted to end Amestris, which is bad.”

“Yeah”

“And it’s okay that you don’t get it because I don’t either. I don’t think you’re stupid. You’re unique. We’re unique. It’s okay to be us.”

“You think so?”

“Yes”. They both sit still for a moment before Ed quietly moves closer to Roy and lays down. Roy follows his movements.

Face to face, Ed reaches out for Roy's hand and they squeeze each other tightly.

“You're smart, Ed” Roy stares into Edward's eyes, serious.

“Don't make fun of me-” The teen almost cries again before the man grabs both of his hands and gets closer.

“Listen to me. You're smart. It doesn't matter what other people say. It doesn't matter that sometimes you don't understand things.”

“You're just saying that because you don't want me to cry. You're the smart one, you know the difference between steel and metal and that they're the same-” he's sobbing and Roy's heart is breaking.

“You know that too. You know now. Everybody had to learn, Ed. You learned that just like everybody else. You just learn differently and that's okay. You're okay”

It would be a lie to say the words only comforted Ed, alone.

“You're smart and your unique and what other people say doesn't matter. It never will. What matters is you and what you can do and you can do so much.”

Ed blinks and him, “You mean it?” The look in his golden eyes is what Roy has been looking for his whole life. He never wants to see him unhappy again.

“I've never meant anything more in my life.” He pushes his forward against his and they both close their eyes, huddling in. There's a soft pitter patter of rain and they're both so, so tired. 

Roy pulls the covers back and they both settle underneath them, wrapped around each other. “You're so pretty” Ed whispers, eyes still shut. It's the last thing he says before he drifts asleep.

Roy thinks really, really hard and comes up with the best thing he can think of.

“You're prettier.” It's true he thinks, and he drifts away too, warm and soft in his arms.


End file.
